Blade servers (or blade PCs) represent a fast growing segment in the computing industry because of the compaction, consolidation, modularity, management, and maintenance afforded by the blade servers. The growth in the use of blade servers has, however, led to ever increasing challenges in efficiently powering and cooling the blade servers. The challenges include attempts at minimizing the relatively high operational capital and recurring costs associated with enterprise environments having a relatively large number of blade servers. The challenges also include attempts at extending the useful lives of the blade servers by maintaining their temperatures within prescribed limits.
Heretofore, computer systems generally and blade servers in particular, have not been power managed to maintain performance and reduce power consumption. Instead, these components are typically over-provisioned so as to be able to meet peak demands, which means that they consume relatively large amounts of power while doing little or no useful work. Operation of these components at the over-provisioned levels has required that cooling resources also be increased to meet the higher demands, thereby increasing the inefficiencies associated with current computer system operations.
A technique for operating computer systems generally, and blade systems in particular, such that the costs associated with powering and cooling the computer systems are substantially minimized would therefore be beneficial.